SERMON,

PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF THE

ASYLUM FOR FEMALE ORPHANS,

LAMBETH,

ON SUNDAY, THE 30TH OF AUGUST,

AND

ON SUNDAY THE 13TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1812;

AND PUBLISHED

AT THE PARTICULAR REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE,

AND FOR THE

BENEFIT OF THE CHARITY.

WHILE reflecting on the history of the human race, there are two things which strike us with remarkable force, the wickedness of man, and the justice and goodness of God. These are legible in every page, and cannot fail to make a deep impression on every pious mind. The conclusion which we naturally draw from this reflection is, that "God hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wicked

nesses."

Since the fatal event of the fall, sin has acquired a lamentable ascendency over the human heart. There it has reigned

Psalm ciii. 10.

Z

with a tyrannic sway, waging a perpetual war against its virtue and its happiness, and exciting it, by every lure of interest and of pleasure, to rebel against its Maker. In Adam the seed of evil was sown. In his eldest-born it ripened into malevolence and murder; and, in process of time, it spread with so luxuriant a growth, as to call for the exterminating hand to lay waste the soil that gave it nourishment.

The deluge, avenging the insulted laws of God, swept away all the inhabitants of the earth, except Noah and his family. But soon was this terrible visitation, together with the awful warning which it conveyed, almost entirely forgotten. As time advanced, wickedness grew grew and prevailed. Again the wrath of Heaven waxed hot against a disobedient world that was set, on mischief. Another deluge was deserved; but God remembered his covenant with Noah, and therefore broke not up again the fountains of the great deep, nor opened any more the windows

of heaven.

The wickedness, however, that had

spread with a wild exuberance on the plains of Shinar, called for some signal punishment. The daring attempt to build a tower, whose top might reach to heaven, that notable device of a rebellious spirit and of conscious guilt, was not permitted to be made with impunity. God came down in his anger upon the builders, confounded their language, and scattered them abroad over the face of the earth.

But no warning nor judgment from above availed to arrest the progress of evil. Not even the fire and brimstone, descending in tremendous showers upon the cities of the plain, could strike the mind of man with conviction beyond the moment. The bolt of divine vengeance was hurled, and the guilty trembled. But no sooner was the storm blown over, than they forgot the devastations it had made. Their fears quickly subsided, and they returned to "walk after their

own devices, and do the imaginations of their evil heart."

* Jer. xviii. 12.